[Thunar-dev] Re: Thunar-dev Digest, Vol 3, Issue 5

[Joe Crawford]

> As botsie mentioned, all shortcut keys should be listed next to their
> corresponding menu items (since all features should be available from
> the menu!), so discoverability isn't an issue.  A toggle button would
> only clutter the UI, IMO.  Not only that, but you're introducing a mouse
> click to enable an action that requires use of the keyboard (you might
> even say that the user is using this feature specifically so they don't
> have to use the mouse).  It just doesn't make sense.

I suppose a button isn't needed if there's a menu entry, but a part of
the reason I mentioned a button for this "keyboard action" is the
number of times people copy and paste paths. Often selecting a path
from the location bar, or pasting a paste into it.

Perhaps letting right click on the path buttons copy a path would be a
step in the right direction, without using a type in box (but that
still wouldn't allow MMB pasting in X).


> Huh.  That it does.  I stand corrected.  And it occurs to me that the
> two shortcuts have a different purpose: ctrl+L opens an empty location
> box, whereas '/' opens the box and prefills it with '/'.  So the former
> is for navigating relative to the current path, and the latter is for
> navigating via an absolute path.  So I suppose having both makes some
> amount of sense.  It's just hard to make them *both* discoverable
> without having an extra menu item that does almost the same thing.

If you simply fill the location box with the current path and select
all text as it comes up, it will be ultra easy to type a relative path
or a absolute path, by either typing right away, (replacing the text),
or typing first a backslash, or pushing the arrow key right or left to
put the cursor where you want it. Using this method would be very
convienient without an extra menu entry.

> Typing paths does not sound like something the interface of a
> filemanager should be primarily designed for. At least not a basic
> easy-to-use point-and-click filemanager that we are aiming for with
> Thunar.
>

I suppose I just have to say this as a final argument, and then leave
it up to you.

Users are going to miss it if it isn't there. So that's the wrong
philosiphy to have. And again...

If people haven't, read around forums/slashdot etc..., you'll see a
lot of posts complaining about spatial nautilus. often its the path
removal that has people so angry.

But it doesn't sound like you'll be cutting it out completely anyway,
based on your previous posts.... so that's good. And if you stick with
"/" and ctl-l it sounds like you'll be more consistent with
GtkFileChooser, anyway, so that's good.

Ultimately, I'm just trying to give an end user's perspective on these
things. Users take a lot of things for granted, and can be very
frustrated when something that seems basic and simple isn't available.


Sincerely,

Joe Crawford
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